I am sitting in a hotel room in downtown Hanoi in Vietnam with rain misting outside. Since I didn’t have any meetings today and I happen to be 12 hours ahead of my usual timezone, I decided to write a Friday Fictioneers story right as the prompt was released. This is actually the third story I wrote before I could get one to 100 words. I’ll post the others later.
copyright Roger Bultot
By the time we arrived, the pulpy flesh spattering the walls had begun to harden. The stench of smashed strawberries and fear hung in the air with the flies.
The other berries were scared to talk until a lemon pointed us towards the watermelons. We got a warrant to roll them; my partner retched at the carnage we uncovered.
It was a gang hit. The Amesti family was making a move on the upper shelf and the bigger Allsweets struck back. Two of them were sentenced to suikawari. That’s just life—and death—in the jungle of the Farmer’s Market.
The Green-Walled Tower 
March 4th, 2020 at 4:05 am
It’s the tomatoes you have to watch out for
March 4th, 2020 at 4:07 am
I thought about putting in the tomatoes, but I ran out of words. They’re trouble. 🙂
March 4th, 2020 at 4:20 am
I was born and bred in a small market town. Tell me about it! Nice one.
March 4th, 2020 at 5:07 am
Brilliant take on the photo prompt, David – so imaginative. (Hope you’re having fun in Hanoi – I stayed in the Old Quarter and it was wonderful.)
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
March 4th, 2020 at 8:45 am
Thanks, Susan. I’m staying in the Old Quarter too, actually. I just got here today but hopefully between my meetings and other work, I’ll have some time to see some things. I’d love to go out to Ha Long Bay but don’t think I’ll have enough time for that this time.
March 4th, 2020 at 5:25 am
Dear David,
Brutal. Simply brutal. Clever you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
March 4th, 2020 at 8:27 am
Thanks, Rochelle. I’ll take brutal as a compliment since that’s what I was going for. It gets more so when you click on the suikawari link.
March 4th, 2020 at 8:29 am
Yes, I went to the link. 😉
March 4th, 2020 at 6:20 am
Oh, I love this! Brilliant!
March 4th, 2020 at 8:25 am
Thanks! 🙂
March 4th, 2020 at 6:26 am
It’s a ‘fruit eat veg’ world out there, no one is safe. Great fun.
March 4th, 2020 at 8:25 am
Thanks, Iain. Glad you liked it.
March 4th, 2020 at 6:29 am
Very clever, very funny.
Just be grapefruit, sorry I mean grateful, there is no rhubarb…
March 4th, 2020 at 8:05 am
I appreciate it. 🙂 It’s grape to hear you liked it.
March 4th, 2020 at 6:31 am
Leave it to the lemons to be narks. Extremely creative story. I loved it! I do wish for the warm wet of southeast Asia (I can’t believe I just said that). It’s cold wet here in France.
March 4th, 2020 at 6:33 am
An interesting take on the prompt to see the POV of the merchandise.
March 4th, 2020 at 7:15 am
Great sketch. I liked the intro too. Well done.
March 4th, 2020 at 8:45 am
Thanks! 🙂
March 4th, 2020 at 11:31 am
Awesome! I wrote about animate fruit too! Great minds eh? Enjoy Vietnam!!
March 5th, 2020 at 11:20 am
That’s funny; great mind think alike, I guess. 🙂
March 5th, 2020 at 12:30 pm
Don’t guess you’re absolutely right with talent like ours we’re wasted here!!😉
March 4th, 2020 at 11:38 am
Now there’s a story with some pulp to it.
Pulp fiction, you might even say.
I’m a good detective.
Randy
March 5th, 2020 at 11:19 am
Pulp fiction, I like that. 🙂
March 4th, 2020 at 12:06 pm
Ha! This was fun (well, not for the strawberries …) – I think I’d watch out for the gourds. They are hard on the outside and empty on the inside … 😉
March 4th, 2020 at 12:42 pm
It was a drive by fruiting…
Glad to see this early, David!
March 5th, 2020 at 11:08 am
Haha, I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Miles. Hope you’re doing well these days. I feel like we should go hang out in a coffee shop in Jeonju again. Well, maybe not now exactly…
March 5th, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Now that was too funny. Not the pits, though.
A drive-by fruiting! Ha.
Randy
March 4th, 2020 at 1:11 pm
Such an entertaining story!
March 4th, 2020 at 5:21 pm
Awesome take on the prompt. Loved it!
March 5th, 2020 at 11:07 am
Thanks ,Cheryl!
March 4th, 2020 at 5:58 pm
I will stick with the broad beans, they are solid fellows…. p.s fascinating story
March 5th, 2020 at 4:09 am
I just followed the link and suikawari sounds like my kinda game! Great title by the way.
Here’s mine!
March 5th, 2020 at 11:07 am
Those Japanese are all about the violent fun. 🙂 I guess it’s like an edible pinata.
March 5th, 2020 at 4:12 am
Brilliantly told. I will be anxious to read what else this inspired.
March 5th, 2020 at 11:06 am
Thanks, Violet. I’ll try to clean them up and post them separately soon.
March 6th, 2020 at 3:25 pm
Too funny, loved it.
March 6th, 2020 at 7:02 pm
Yes, a farmers market can be a jungle for the venders.
March 7th, 2020 at 8:17 am
This was fun. Brilliant.
March 22nd, 2020 at 7:10 pm
Thanks. 🙂 Glad you liked it.
March 8th, 2020 at 4:04 pm
I have a fear of fruits after this